Mary+Borglun


 * SUMMARY: Mary Borglun, age 20, died on August 4, 1900 after an abortion perpetrated in Chicago by Mary Kempfer, who was either a nurse or a midwife.**

On August 4, 1900, 20-year-old newlywed Mary (or Marie) Borglum died in her home from complications of an abortion performed there that day. The abortion had been agreed upon by both Mary and her husband, James. Mrs. Mary Kempfer was arrested that same day and held without bail by a Coroner's Jury. Kempfer's employment status was listed as [|nurse or midwife].

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see [|Abortion Deaths 1900-1909].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources:
 * [|Homicide in Chicago Interactive]
 * First in violence, deepest in dirt: homicide in Chicago, 1875-1920, Jeffrey S. Adler

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